MacTech Blog

Apr 01

The Northern Spy: don your computers

By Rick Sutcliffe

Wearable computing technology has been the "latest" buzz longer than most ideas (indeed longer than some ideas endure from conception to death), generating endless speculation about who will bring out what product in the genre and when.

As often the case, the Spy has the inside track. Mind, he does not deal in speculation or rumour. However, he does keep his ear to the ground, his eye on the horizon, his nose to the grindstone, his hand in the industry, and his mind on the probabilities, which for simultaneity may be a literal anatomical improbability and for metaphorical use too much a melange merely to be termed "mixed."

One new technology recently in the news was a means to read the brain's diversified visual storage and reconstruct memories of faces--touted as useful in identifying perpetrators of crimes. Sounds quite interesting. Add this to a new manufacturing technique from I.R.C. for integrated...

Over 50% of U.S. broadband households now use paid over-the-top (OTT) video services, either subscription or transactional, according to research from Parks Associates (http://www.parksassociates.com). The firm also notes 37% of consumers 18-24 say online video is their most important video source.

"Parks Associates research shows 45% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to a paid online video service, with younger consumers such as Millennials more likely than older consumers to use OTT services," says John Barrett, director, Consumer Analytics, Parks Associates.

According to the market research firm, online video is one of the most important sources of video among all U.S. broadband households. Over 40% of U.S. broadband households selected online video as one of the top three important sources of video, versus 25% for rented DVDs or 13% for owned Blu-ray discs.

The U.S. mobile payment landscape is currently in a state of flux: Although two-thirds of consumers are interested in learning more about transitioning to a mobile wallet platform, that interest is simply not translating into adoption, according to the Yankee Group (www.yankeegroup.com).

While traditional payment methods continue to reign supreme, a number of third-party mobile wallets are jockeying for position in the U.S. mobile payment landscape — but not all have the vision needed for long-term survival, says the research group. To endure the inevitable wave of consolidation, a well-defined roadmap paired with patience and endurance will be among the many competencies required.

Highlights from a new Yanke Group report include:
° Mobile wallets remain a story of high interest and low adoption, as just 16% of mobile device owners have used their phone to make an in-store payment in the past...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) says this is a pivotal year for tablets as the traditional markets leading computing and CE [consumer electronics] deployments reach a tipping point and give way to growth regions.

The most mature markets, including North America, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea, are yielding to other regions, such as Latin America, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, where the connectivity infrastructure and distribution channels are coming of age. ABI Research forecasts 200 million branded tablet shipments this year—a 20% gain year-over-year from the 166 million shipments in 2013.

With more choices than ever for mobile computing, consumers and businesses will weigh the role of tablets along with ultraportable PCs and large screen smartphones (the so-called phablets) to satisfy their communications and computing needs. But 2014 will be anything but status quo for tablet...

While first generation LBS services have largely been commoditized or shifted to advertising models, the imminent arrival of indoor location, BLE tags, and wearables will enable next generation services around ambient intelligence and consumer asset tracking, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). In the latest edition of the company’s quarterly market data, "Location Enabled Services", these new markets are forecast by each major region.

"While these are very different markets, the common denominator is the availability of these new technologies and devices," says senior analyst Patrick Connolly. "Ambient intelligence, or the quantified self, is the first service that will truly change how people live their lives, while also enabling intuitive advertising and services. Local search will be unrecognizable from today’s model, as intelligent algorithms tell users what is of interest nearby, based...

New global research by the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by mobile interaction service provider tyntec, has revealed that on average almost 50% of One-Time Passwords(OTPs) fail to arrive due to invalid mobile numbers provided by end-users. For the study, the Ponemon Institute surveyed more than 1,800 IT and IT security practitioners around the world.

The research also revealed that 65% of respondents felt the traditional username and password approach was insecure. As a result, 90% of global IT managers say their organizations plan or consider the possibility to adopt SMS-enabled two-factor authentication (2FA) in 2014 in order to improve online security.
The majority of international respondents (31%) cited on average 11-20% is the amount of OTPs that fail to be delivered. Of that, almost 50% on average fail because an invalid mobile number was entered by the end-user. As well as end-users providing invalid mobile numbers, OTPs can also fail due to technical...

With more than two-thirds of the global population expected to live in urban contexts by 2050, the deployment of smart cities technologies and intelligent transportation services in particular, will become key policy areas for local governments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

By 2025, penetration of ITS technologies in smart cities will range from 20% (autonomous vehicles) to 98% (traffic management), according to the research group.

"While numerous smart city projects are currently testing or deploying multimodal transportation, traffic management, adaptive traffic signaling, transit ticketing and smart parking payment solutions, the focus will shift to urban tolling and freight systems to address rampant congestion and pollution issues, especially in developing regions. However, more structural approaches based on eMobility, cooperative ITS and V2I, autonomous vehicles, and...

The public cloud services market is slowly maturing, giving rise to a varied ecosystem of composite and value-added services. Security is starting to figure more prominently among these services as organizations realize they need better control over cloud-based processes, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

While compliance concerns still remain high, cloud service providers have worked hard to address the issue, but at premium-level costs. SMBs have struggled to find the right balance between public cloud offerings and security. This gap is quickly being filled by innovative startups, eager to fill the demand for cost-effective and specialized security services for organizations subscribed to public cloud services, according to ABI Research.

The most dynamic market responses are around cloud API management, identity and access management (IAM), host and network security,...

ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com) says that Chinese handset vendors will account for over 50% of mobile handsets in 2015. Chinese vendors already accounted for 38% of mobile handset shipments in 2013 and the ongoing shift in growth to low cost handsets, especially smartphones, will increase their market share.

Greater China has long dominated the mobile handset manufacturing supply chain, but now its OEMs are beginning to dominate sales at the expense of the traditional handset OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], including even Samsung, according to the research group.

Many of the Chinese OEMs have focused almost exclusively on the huge Chinese market, with little activity beyond its borders, but this is set to change. Huawei (6th in worldwide market share for 2013) and ZTE (5th) have already made an impact on the world stage, but other Chinese handset OEMs like Lenovo — the...

Whether working as a one-person shop or part of a small consulting business, Apple consultants have more opportunity than ever to increase their revenue: 97% of Fortune 500 companies use iPhones for business, 98% of those companies use iPads, and Apple leads the individual smartphone market with 41% of users. When you take government and educational institutions into account, iPhones account for 59% of the entire enterprise smartphone market, and iPads for 78% of the tablet market.

But as with anything, these tremendous opportunities aren’t without their risks. Apple consultants who aren’t careful to manage the risks that accompany their work could find themselves with no clients, no revenue, and high legal bills.

The Major Risks That Threaten Apple Consultants

Here’s a look at the four biggest risks that threaten Apple consultants and how they can manage those risks to keep their business in the black....

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues increased year over year by 2.4%, totaling $6.9 billion, during the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13), according to the IDC research group (http://www.idc.com).

For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated $8.8 billion in revenue, representing a 1.3% increase from the prior year's fourth quarter and a sequential increase of 17.2% compared to the seasonally lower 3Q13. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped surpassed 10.2 exabytes, growing 26.2% year over year.

"The disk storage systems market was able to break free of recent headwinds due to traditional year-end budget flushes, improved economic sentiment, and a strong desire to address long-standing storage infrastructure inefficiencies," says Eric Sheppard, research director, IDC Storage. "Industry stakeholders able to capitalize the most on this demand...

2013 proved to be a good year for the tandem markets for workstations and professional GPUs, reports technology and market research firm, Jon Peddie Research (www.jonpeddie.com). In the fourth quarter, the market continued onward and upward, holding on to the substantial gains of the previous two quarters, closing out a healthy 2013.

Worldwide, the industry shipped approximately 971.6 thousand workstations in the fourth quarter of 2013, essentially flat (-0.2%) from Q3'13 and up 4.0% from the same quarter the year prior. That figure nearly eclipsed the record 1.0 million units the market set back in 2011. Given the quarter was sequentially flat, but exhibited respectable year-over-year (YoY) growth rate (4.0%), the leading workstation and graphics research firm labeled Q4'13 as another positive quarter in the market's steady, albeit unhurried, journey forward.

The worldwide Wi-Fi customer premises equipment market including access points, routers and gateways shipments surpassed 139.1 million in 2013. 802.11ac access point adoption is starting to gain market share, representing 8% of the total consumer access point market in 2013, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

More device manufacturers started to ship 802.11ac products in 2013; the majority of them provide dual-band access to support existing 802.11n devices.

"Although 802.11n devices hold the largest market share of the consumer Wi-Fi device shipments in 2013, 802.11n share of shipments is likely to start declining in 2014 as 802.11ac device adoption continues to grow. 802.11ac devices are expected to represent 45% of consumer Wi-Fi equipment shipments at the end of 2014," says Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst, ABI Research.

Technology Business Research Inc.’s "Cloud Professional Services Customer Report" shows demand for cloud professional services continues to escalate, with more than 74% of enterprise clients, compared to 59% in 2011, purchasing or considering purchasing cloud computing services engaged with a cloud professional services vendor for assistance.

Recently, clients’ professional services demands shifted, with a need for assistance in system integration and implementation taking the lead. TBR surveyed 900 end users of cloud professional services across North America, Europe and Asia to map vendor opportunity and customer and competitor landscapes for the report, which is one of three customer-facing research initiatives in TBR’s cloud customer portfolio, says TBRI Senior Analyst Ramunas Svarcas.

With a growing number of customers investing in cloud services, the demand for cloud professional services is on the rise. TBR estimates cloud professional services revenue...

The Parks Associates research group (www.parksassociates.com) has released mobile industry research showing roughly 29% of U.S. broadband users watch video on a mobile phone monthly, with the average user watching 1.7 hours of video on a mobile phone each week.

"Since 2008, revenues from voice services for the top-four U.S. mobile network operators (MNOs) have declined 6%, while data revenues have grown 129%," says Harry Wang, director, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "Mobile data revenues will be key to offsetting stagnant growth in voice revenues. Most major MNOs worldwide are transitioning or have already adopted tiered or shared usage-based data plans, and they will continue to experiment with pricing models to optimize the revenue-generation potential of mobile data access."

Consumer exposure to advanced recommendations engines will grow to reach 75% of Pay TV households on multiscreen services and 55% on set-top boxes within North America by 2018, up from 20% and 10% in 2013, respectively, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

This significant growth is driven by today’s highly competitive viewer landscape for Pay TV and OTT operators, says the research group. At the core of this are search, recommendation and discovery technologies that rely heavily on rich metadata as well as user analysis and learning.

"TiVo’s acquisition of recommendation specialist Digitalsmiths is indicative of the tight relationship between guides, metadata, and recommendations," says ABI Research Practice Drector Sam Rosen. "We expect further consolidation moving forward as recommendations move from a wish-list item to a must-have in today’s competitive environment....

According to ABI Research’s "Mobile Internet Pricing Q1-2014 Market Data," more than 55% of the cheapest country tariff plans are 4G compared to just 22% a year ago. This has been driven by the aggressive deployment of LTE networks and a wider choice of consumer-centric LTE smartphones.

"However, we found that the average cost of mobile Internet tariff plans across the cheapest 20 markets increased by 8.24% between Q1-2013 and Q1-2014," comments Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com). "While 55% of the 20 cheapest country plans were 4G, 4G tariff plans were only marginally more expensive than 3G tariff plans. One year ago, the 4G data pricing was around 20% higher than 3G for the equivalent data-plan. Competition is forcing the mobile operators to pare down the prices of even their 4G tariffs."

Organizations wishing to unlock the full potential of mobility must master a wide range of technologies and skills, many of which are unfamiliar to IT staff, according to Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at the Gartner research group (www.gartner.com). He lists the top 10 mobile technologies and capabilities that organizations must master in 2015 and 2016. as follows:

° Most organizations will need application development tools to support a "3 x 3" future — three key platforms (Android, iOS and Windows) and three application architectures (native, hybrid and mobile Web). Tool selection will be a complex balancing act, trading off many technical and nontechnical issues (such as productivity versus vendor stability), and most large organizations will need a portfolio of several tools to deliver to the architectures and platforms they require.

Emerging IC applications, outside of the traditional card form-factors are set to make up an increasing proportion of the secure IC market landscape, accounting for 11% of total shipments in 2013, increasing to 24% in 2018, says ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

The primary use cases for ICs outside of card based applications include authentication ICs for anti-counterfeiting and brand protection, use within luxury goods, ICT, CE devices and accessories, pharmaceutical and IT consumables, covering products and components, embedded secure elements for NFC enabled devices and TPMs. Combined it is these emerging applications which will present annual IC revenues in excess of US$2.9 billion in 2018, according to ABI Research.

The threat from counterfeit goods is on the increase and IC technology is seen as a hardware solution to guarantee product/component authenticity, protecting brands...

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), a research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, has announced estimated graphics chip shipments and suppliers’ market share for 2013 4Q. The quarter was the second quarter in a row to show a gain in shipments, up 1.6% quarter-to-quarter, and up 2% compared to the same quarter last year.

AMD’s overall unit shipments decreased 10.4%, quarter-to-quarter, Intel’s total shipments increased 5.1% from last quarter, and Nvidia’s increased 3.4%. The attach rate of GPUs to PCs [personal computers] for the quarter was 137% and 34% of PCs had discrete GPUs that means 66% of the PCs are using embedded graphics. The overall PC market increased 1.8% quarter-to-quarter, but declined 8.5% year-to-year.

The popularity of tablets and the persistent economic slowness are the most often mentioned reasons for the decline in the PC market, according to JPR (www.jonpeddie.com). The one...

In recent years, streaming music services have shown that there is a market for personalized radio and on-demand subscription based services, listening via PCs and laptops and particularly via smartphones. Now these companies are turning their attention to the car and are seeking ways to offer their services to motorists, moving into territory the traditional radio stations have held sacred for decades.

"FM broadcasting still dominates in-car listening today, but it is likely that this will gradually diminish in favor of streamed radio and music services as an increasing number of cars become connected," says Gareth Owen, principal analyst at ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com). "This trend is already happening in some markets such as the United States. "It is now clear that digital radio via DAB/DAB+ and HD Radio is unlikely to ever become as widespread as FM on a global or even regional basis...

Approximately 60% of smartphone and tablet users watch 1-5 hours of TV/video on these mobile platforms each week, which will help drive in-app advertising revenues on these platforms to over US$5.6 billion by 2017, according to the Parks Associates research group (http://www.parksassociates.com).

"While industry stakeholders have access to vast amounts of user data, cross-platform audience measurement remains complex, varied, and undefined," Senior Research Analyst Heather Way says."There is no scalable, cross-platform audience metric standard in place to determine how traditional and online video complements or overlaps one another from a usage and advertising perspective. A true cross-platform video measurement approach is essential to quantify unduplicated reach across broadcast and cable TV, the Internet, and mobile apps and web properties. Industry demand will only grow stronger as more...

By Rick Sutcliffe
Being insanely proprietary can be both a strength and/or a weakness. On the negative side of the ledger, HP, Xerox, and IBM, by not being more particular about their in-house inventions and IP, all lost opportunities to dominate the personal computing market.

Oh, yes, IBM did for a while, but because the software was controlled by Microsoft, and wasn't exclusive, clones eventually turned their boxes into commodities, and they exited the market rather than compete on a consumer level — much to the Spy's surprise and chagrin, for he believes it was and remains a mistake. It wasn't a bad as Canadian Pacific exiting the telecommunications business in favour of Rogers, but of the same nature — abandoning participation in technological future megabucks for a handful of present-day dollars.

Yes, and one can scarcely count the number of technology companies that fell by the wayside due to complacency, failure of vision, lack of...

ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com) has forecast that over 34 billion tickets will be delivered to mobile devices over the next five years. The combined number takes into consideration the multiple technologies used to present a mobile ticket at time of authentication, including QR codes, NFC, SMS, mobile wallets, Bluetooth Smart, and dedicated apps.

In terms of the tickets delivered over the 2014 to 2019 time frame, QR codes are forecast to make up 48% of all tickets delivered, NFC with 30% and SMS and others making up the remaining 22%, according to the research group. Although NFC is the technology forecast to have the fastest growth with a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] in excess of 100% over the same time frame, it is QR codes which are forecast to account for the majority of mobile tickets delivered having had a substantial head start in the market.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com), global smart watch shipments reached a record two million units in 2013. Android captured 61% share of all smart watches shipped worldwide and it is commanding an early lead over rivals, according to the research group.

"Global smart watch shipments reached a record 1.9 million units in 2013," Matt Wilkins, director at Strategy Analytics, says. "It is very early days, of course, but the smart watch market is starting to take shape. We estimate less than 1% of all smartphones shipped worldwide were bundled with smart watches in 2013, so there remains huge scope for smart watch growth in the future."

Woody Oh, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics, adds: "Android currently has several challengers in the smart watch space, like Firefox and Pebble OS, but none of them are a major threat at this...

After nine consecutive quarters of explosive growth, which propelled China into the top smartphone market in the world, the China smartphone market experience its first slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2013 (2013 Q4), according to IDC (http://www.idc.com).

According to the the research group, the market shipped 90.8 million units compared to 94.8 million in 2013 Q3, declining by 4.3% quarter on quarter. Several factors drove this stumble. For one, China Mobile’s 4G TD-LTE network went live on December 18, translating into supplies of 4G handsets not able to reach the market fully until 2014 Q1. The increasing popularity of phablets and channel inventory also played a role, whereby operators cut phone subsidies on phones with smaller screens, triggering distribution channels looking to clear out those stocks.

"The world has increasingly looked to China as the powerhouse to propel the world’s smartphone...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) expects the market for in-building wireless equipment and deployments to grow to over US$8 billion in 2019, up from a forecast $4.4 billion for 2014 representing a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

North America will continue to be the region with maximum DAS spend with sports venues and transportation continuing to be the verticals which attract the most DAS investment while shopping malls, healthcare and hotels/resorts finish a close second place, according to the research group. Together these verticals in North America account for about two-thirds of DAS spending. North America is followed by Asia-Pacific and then Europe (in that order) for market size.

"While the Asia-Pacific region today accounts for less than a quarter of the total market, we expect it to grow to more than 25% by 2019 at a CAGR of more than 20%," says Nick Marshall, principal analyst at...

Basic and smart wearable band shipments grew dramatically in the second half of 2013, according to Canalys (http://www.canalys.com).

Fitbit became the new leader of the wearable band market, following the launch of its affordable Flex and Force bands in May and October 2013 respectively. It dominated the market for basic bands, with over 50% market share in the second half of the year. At the same time, Samsung accounted for the majority of smart band shipments according to Canalys market estimates.

"Samsung launched the Galaxy Gear with a major marketing push that gained significant consumer interest. Shipments of the device took Samsung to the top of the smart band category, though disappointing sell-through will necessitate more promotional activity in coming months," says Chris Jones, vice president and principal analyst at Canalys. "Basic band vendors have greater wearable expertise and have...

iBeacons are fast becoming the foot soldiers of indoor location in retail, bringing awareness and adoption, but it is just one of over 10 indoor location technologies competing in this $5 billion space. A host of new, higher-accuracy, "infrastructure-free" technologies are forecast to change the face of and use case for indoor location in the future," according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

"We see huge growth for infrastructure-based technologies like Wi-Fi and iBeacons, with BLE deployments forecast to break 20,000 by 2015, largely focused on retail. But the arrival of high-accuracy handset-based technologies like sensor fusion, LED, magnetic field and a host of others, will also enable a whole new set of consumer applications and services around ambient intelligence, social networking, corporate/enterprise, fitness/health, mobile advertising, and gaming," says senior analyst...

While traditional safety telematics services such as eCall, bCall, stolen vehicle tracking, and diagnostics aimed at the physical protection of vehicles, drivers and passengers are becoming main stream, awareness is growing about the threat of cyber-attacks and their impact on the physical integrity of persons, especially with Vehicle-to-Vehicle communication and autonomous vehicles, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

This is prompting car OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and Tier1 suppliers to source security technology, with more than 20 million connected cars forecasted to ship with software-based security by 2020, says the research group.

"So far connected car security has been mainly based on hardware protection and separation with infotainment and vehicle-centric safety systems shielded from each other. However, the shift towards cost-effective software-based security based...

Despite continued growth of online video viewing on connected CE devices and excitement from new platforms like Google’s Chromecast and new consoles from Microsoft and Sony, annual increases in mobile online viewing (tablets and smartphones) are higher than any other category, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

Worldwide mobile views already constitute over 20% of the total (in 2013) and this share will continue to grow – more than doubling during the five year forecast window. Pay TV services will continue to serve as the primary video entertainment solution for many consumers, but overall time spent watching online video is expected to pass 21 hours per month by 2019, up from 12.7 hours in 2013 (worldwide average among online video viewers).

Computers, however, will remain relevant as many expect these devices to continue serving as the primary viewing device during the...

The primary drivers include the increasing move to national standards and the enablement of NFC and open-loop payments. This trend is a consistent feature across all continents with particular progress within the UK, U.S., Australia, Germany, Turkey, and the BRIC countries forming a growth engine for future contactless ticketing adoption.

ABI Research says growth is particularly strong in China, India, and Brazil where accelerating contactless ticketing programs within flagship cities can be found. In 2013 these three countries accounted for 21% of all smart contactless ticketing cards shipped worldwide. As these projects evolve the research group expects to see further expansion...

By the end of 2018, half the African population will be covered by LTE networks, as LTE base station deployment swells at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 40% over the next five years, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

However, LTE network population coverage will be far from homogenous across the region, with a few countries such as Angola and Namibia nearing the halfway point already while wealthier nations like Botswana and Gabon have yet to deploy the advanced technology, says the research group.

"Part of the underlying reason for this digital divide is the different types of initiatives driving LTE roll-out," says Ying Kang Tan, research associate, ABI Research. "We expect wholesale or shared networks such as the joint venture between the Rwandan government and Korea Telecom and the public-private partnership proposed by the Kenyan government to spur LTE...

McAfee has released the findings from their 2014 Love, Relationships & Technology survey. For a second year in a row, the company examined how more than 1,500 consumers are sharing and storing intimate data on their mobile devices, especially with current or former significant others. The study highlights how sharing personal content such as suggestive texts, naked photos, suggestive video and passcodes on these devices can potentially lead to cyber-stalking and the exposure of private content leaking online.

While 98% of respondents use their mobile device to take photos, 54% send or receive intimate content including video, photos, emails and messages. Of those surveyed, 69% are securing their smartphone with a password or passcode, a 30 percentage point increase from last year’s result. However, 46% of U.S. adults still share their passwords with another individual (down from 54%), while 42% use the same password across multiple devices, increasing the likelihood that...

The consumerization of IT and business bring your own device (BYOD) programs have resulted in potential security problems for IT leaders, according to Gartner Inc. (http://www.gartner.com).

User expectations of a clean and simple mobile user experience often outweigh security concerns, and the same valuable data guarded by complex passwords and security measures on personal computers [PCs] can be left vulnerable on mobile devices. Gartner predicts that, by 2016, 30% of organizations will use biometric authentication on mobile devices, up from five percent today.

"Mobile users staunchly resist authentication methods that were tolerable on PCs and are still needed to bolster secure access on mobile devices," says Ant Allan, research vice president at Gartner. "Security leaders must manage users' expectations and take into account the user experience without comprising security."

Despite major GPS fitness device original equipment manufacturers (OEMS) announcing new fitness products at CES 2014, it looks like an increasingly difficult battle between smart devices and wearables, according to ABI Research.

Garmin launched its Vivofit fitness band and Vivoki/Vivahub corporate wellness solution. Magallen is one of the few companies in the GPS device OEM space that continues to show flashes of innovation, opening up its Echo watch platform to a range of third party smartphone application developers. At the high-end of the GPS fitness watch market, Polar has launched a new multi-sport watch, which features a barometric pressure sensor, support for new features such as a cycling power pedal, and an interesting price point of US$450-500. TomTom has launched an iOS application that links its current GPS watch range to an iPhone via Bluetooth.
In ABI Research’s quarterly GPS/GNSS Device tracker (...

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global Smart TV shipments grew 55% year-over-year to reach 76 million units in 2013, accounting for 33% of total Flat Panel TV (FPTV) during the year.

Strategy Analytics' Smart TV Forecast report (www.strategyanalytics.com) found that Western Europe was the leading market for Smart TV in terms of penetration of shipments with close to 45% of FPTVs shipped in the region last year being Smart TVs. Looking to the future, the company predicts that global Smart TVs will account for 44% of FPTV shipments in 2014 and 73% by 2017 by which time it says virtually all mid to high-end TV sets will include some form of IP connectivity.

"Smart TVs are steadily moving mainstream and are integrating into a multi-platform offering alongside smartphones, tablets and PCs. Manufacturers will do well to focus their efforts on enabling better...

The technology of 3D "bioprinting" (the medical application of 3D printing to produce living tissue and organs) is advancing so quickly that it will spark a major ethical debate on its use by 2016, according to Gartner Inc. (http://www.gartner.com).

At the same time, 3D printing of non-living medical devices such as prosthetic limbs, combined with a burgeoning population and insufficient levels of healthcare in emerging markets, is likely to cause an explosion in demand for the technology by 2015.

"3D bioprinting facilities with the ability to print human organs and tissue will advance far faster than general understanding and acceptance of the ramifications of this technology," says Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner.

Already in August 2013, the Hangzhou Dianzi University in China announced it had invented the biomaterial 3D printer Regenovo, which printed a small working kidney...

The latest research from the Intelligence division of DatacenterDynamics identifies that the U.S. has one of the highest average facility ages in the world and as a result is fighting an ongoing battle to keep its armada of older facilities fit for purpose in today’s fast-changing, technology-driven data center world.

American metropolitan areas with mature data center markets, including New York and the Tri-State, are finding that increasing proportions of budget are being spent on upgrading existing facilities, ensuring they continue to meet business drivers and are keeping up with the dynamic nature of IT requirements. In addition, the research identifies that almost a quarter of all data center footprint in the U.S. is now outsourced. This represents a significant ongoing shift in the marketplace and one which is expected to continue.

These issues will be on the agenda at DatacenterDynamics Converged New York on March 11 where industry experts, thought...

McAfee (www.mcafee.com) has released the results of a survey that takes a look at the important parallels between personal and online security. When asked, 39% of respondents said they use technological devices to control their home security systems and 34% use smartphones to do so.

Alongside our appetite for such advanced technologies, so grows our need for protection of the digital devices that control them. Data from this survey suggests that our digital and physical lives are now fully intersected, according to McAfee.

Commissioned by The Futures Company, the joint survey of over 1,000 consumers shows that more than 51% of respondents reported having their personal security compromised through both physical and online breaches. When asked to define "personal security," about 77% of survey participants consider it to intertwine both physical and online security, providing further insight that our digital...

The Spy and wife own and she drives a 1991 Buick Regal that in today's terms is generally regarded as hopelessly obsolete driving technology. It has no informative car computer display, not GPS, no telephone, no heated seats, TV in the back seating area or anti-lock /skid braking system, and the climate control system is primitive and manual.

Even the 2002 Buick Regal he drives has some of that, though it too is regarded as ancient by some people. Yet both continue to do the job for which they were purchased--transporting among home, Church, town, and children/grandchildren--and, contrary to some, the end use is far more important than the means. So, in what practical sense is either mere means of transport obsolete, except from an advertising bumph point of view, where the goal is to persuade us, against a known lack of need, that we want to buy the latest replacement?

Although an increasing number of taxis are equipped with embedded telematics units, this is being overshadowed by the rapid rise in popularity of smartphone-based taxi apps, which enable passengers to order a taxi via an app, with the driver similarly receiving pick-up requests directly via smartphone.

Most capital cities nowadays boast a number of smartphone-based taxi-apps. Some of the better known ones include Allocab, Hailo Cab, Uber Taxi, Easy Taxi, Kabbee, mytaxi, GetTaxi, Taxi.eu, Didi-Dache, Huaidi-Dache, MiniCabster, Chauffer-Prive.com, and Yongche. However, not all the apps are the same, although the majority operate on a peer-to-peer basis by-passing traditional taxi companies.

"Some such as Hailo work with the independent taxi drivers, but by-pass the taxi companies," says Gareth Owen, principal analyst at ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com). "Others such as Uber compete...

By 2017, mobile apps will be downloaded more than 268 billion times, generating revenue of more than $77 billion and making apps one of the most popular computing tools for users across the globe, according to Gartner, Inc. (http://www.gartner.com). As a result, the research group predicts that mobile users will provide personalized data streams to more than 100 apps and services every day.

"Mobile apps have become the official channel to drive content and services to consumers. From entertainment content to productivity services, from quantified-self to home automation, there is an app for practically anything a connected consumer may want to achieve," says Brian Blau, research director at Gartner. "This connection to consumer services means users are constantly funneling data through mobile apps. As users continue to adopt and interact with apps, it is their data — what they say, what they do, where they...

Life360, a location and communication app for families, has shared findings from a recent omnibus survey that show a growing acceptance and use of location sharing apps. The survey, conducted by VeraQuest among a group of more of 1,169 teens and adults who own a smartphone, examined habits and feelings about sharing one's location through an app.

More than 60% of smartphone users report that they use at least one location sharing app on their smartphone, and 36% say they use two or more. Forty-one percent of adults say they are more willing to share their location today versus five years ago.

Both teens and adults overwhelmingly cite safety as the primary reason they are willing to share their location through an app. Yet that feeling of safety is tied to sharing one's location with family members more so than friends. 87% of teens and 73% of adults say they feel safer knowing that their family is aware of their location through an app while only 39% of teens and 42%...

New research from Park Associates (http://www.parksassociates.com) reveals that approximately 66% of all U.S. broadband households find a smart home bundled package appealing, which could include a variety of home safety, security, and management offerings. Home management is the most appealing bundle, including safety alerts, remote home monitoring, and remote management of the home's thermostat.

"Consumers, while interested in smart home services, are averse to long-term contracts, but there are other, alternate options for building revenues," says Tom Kerber, director, r, Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "To avoid monthly monitoring fees, consumers are willing to let their service provider adjust their thermostat during peak hours. There is also interest in in-app purchases and advertising, which could be a source of incremental revenue for product manufacturers and...

New data from ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com) found that 2013 market shipments fell 193 million units to 4.94 billion — a drop of 3.8%.

A number of separate issues combined to affect the market last year, varying from region to region, according to the research group. While some countries were boosted by the ongoing upgrade and addition of 4G LTE and NFC-capable SIM cards, shipment of such high-end SIMs at a global level were below previous expectations for 2013. However, by far the most significant factor was the overall decline in Asia.

Asia and the ramping penetration of mobile telephony has been the primary growth engine for SIMs over the past five years. In 2013 there were several factors that combined to reverse this process overall. At the end of 2012 India became the latest country to require presentation of ID and registration of the purchase of pre-paid SIMs.

Hardware security for mobile devices is fast becoming a priority market as maturing applications for mobile finance or government-level use increasingly demand security at the core, according to ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com).

Trust hardware and secure boot for trusted executions environments are necessary elements for such industries, says the research group. Without this security assurance, applications for mobile commerce, mobile money or wallet will have some difficulty getting off the ground and finding adoption by the big card payment providers.

There are a number of obstacles barring the way to the full dynamic emergence of a hardware security market. Not least of which is the fragmented mobile device landscape, with as many players on the silicon IP side as in OEM [original equipment manufacturing], led by ARM, Trustonic, and Samsung. This particular mobile movement is also...

The costs and challenges associated with electronic asset failures are significant. To better understand these issues, Innovolt, a provider of intelligent electronics protection and asset management technology, sponsored a survey of executives from several industries that are particularly dependent upon the reliability, performance, and lifespan of sensitive electronic equipment.

The study, conducted by Gatepoint Research, sheds new light on the challenges that businesses face with an emphasis on the problems caused by power quality fluctuations and the true costs related to equipment issues requiring service calls. A sample of the key findings includes:

° Almost a fifth of respondents report that 25%t of their assets require service each month while 4 out of 10 must service 16 percent or more of their assets each month.

° That adds up. 73% of companies with more than 1,000 electronic assets deployed report that each service call costs at least US$150.

Nearly 330 million smart devices with gesture-sensing will be shipped in 2015, a nearly 70% increase over the 2014 forecast and a doubling of shipments in 2013. According to the new data from NPD DisplaySearch (http://www.displaysearch.com) smart devices are expected to drive gesture-sensing market growth in 2015, as the adoption of 3D depth sensing becomes more accurate and affordable, not only on smartphones and tablets, but also on smart TVs, all-in-one computers, and other large-screen devices.

"While touch screens have been successfully adopted as a key user interface for smartphones, mobile PCs, and other mobile devices, larger smart devices are not touch-screen suitable,” said Calvin Hsieh, research director at NPD DisplaySearch. "Gesture sensing is the next critical user interface trend, designed to improve the usefulness of, and user experience on, smart TVs and other large smart devices...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

MacFamilyTree 7.3.4 - Create and explore...

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Iridient Developer 3.0.1 - Powerful imag...

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Duplicate Annihilator 5.7.5 - Find and d...

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Little Snitch 3.5.2 - Alerts you about o...

Little Snitch gives you control over your private outgoing data.
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Pie In The Sky: A Pizza Odyssey 1.0
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Description:
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Chosen Gives Hopeful Singers, Songwriter...

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Android's Popular OfficeSuite Now A...

Once only available for Android devices, OfficeSuite has finally landed on the app store. The Mobile Systems app lets you view, edit, create, and share Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents as well as convert them to/from PDFs. It's touted as being... | Read more »

Warhammer: Arcane Magic is Coming Soon,...

Turbo Tape Games has announced that they're joining forces with Games Workshop to bring the turn-based strategy board game, Warhammer: Arcane Magic, to life on the iOS.
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Fast & Furious: Legacy's Creati...

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Appy to Have Known You - Lee Hamlet Look...

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Hands-On With Allstar Heroes - A Promisi...

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Macho Man and Steve Austin Join the Rank...

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Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

Apple offering refurbished 27-inch 5K iMacs f...

The Apple Store is offering Apple Certified Refurbished 27″ 3.5GHz 5K iMacs for $2119 including free shipping. Their price is $380 off the price of new models, and it’s the lowest price available for... Read more

16GB iPad mini on sale for $199, save $50

Walmart has 16GB iPad minis (1st generation) available for $199.99 on their online store, including free shipping. Their price is $50 off MSRP. Online orders only.
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The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished 13″ 2.6GHz/128GB Retina MacBook Pros available for $979 including free shipping. Original MSRP for this model was $1299.
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The Apple Store is offering Apple Certified Refurbished Mac Pros for up to $600 off the cost of new models. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each Mac Pro, and shipping is free. The... Read more

Samsung Galaxy S 6 and Galaxy S 6 edge U.S. P...

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. has announced the Galaxy S 6 and Galaxy S 6 edge will be available in the U.S. beginning April 10, with pre-orders being accepted now.
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13-inch 2.5GHz MacBook Pro (refurbished) avai...

The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished 13″ 2.5GHz MacBook Pros available for $829, or $270 off the cost of new models. Apple’s one-year warranty is standard, and shipping is free:
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Färbe Technik, which manufactures and markets of mobile accessories for Apple, Blackberry and Samsung mobile devices, is offering tips on how to keep your iPhone charged while in the field:
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Lead *Apple* Solutions Consultant - Retail...

**Job Summary** Job Summary The Lead ASC is an Apple employee who serves as the Apple business manager and influencer in a hyper-business critical Reseller's store
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*Apple* Pay - Site Reliability Engineer - Ap...

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